The Pantry

This week I finally finished re-reading The Pantry:  Its History and Modern Uses, written by Catherine Seiberling Pond in 2007.

The Pantry covers the history of the room in American homes, and is meant to be an inspiration for modern pantries, which are one of most asked for spaces among house hunters.  The book is divided into chapters, each covering pantries of a different era.  The Early American chapter points out that pantries were a necessity because food storage was crucial as people bought (made, grew, etc.) food in quantity to last for long periods of time, especially those who lived outside of urban areas.  By the Victorian era, kitchens were more industrial with cast iron stoves and linoleum floors.  This was the era of home economics where the kitchen was meant to be hygenic and efficient.  Kitchens were work spaces, no longer the center of the home, but moved to the back, or even to the basement in urban homes.  In this era, especially in upper class homes, the butler's pantry became the buffer zone between the kitchen and the dining room.

When I think of a pantry, I have the image of a butler's pantry:  banks of cabinets with glass doors above and long counters, that combination of display and storage away from the grease and dust of the kitchen.  Something like this would do just fine:

By the middle of the 20th century, food shortages during the wars and the birth of convenience foods and neighborhood grocery stores meant that there were fewer foods to store.  The space pantries took up was re-purposed for broom closets, breakfast nooks, etc.  The function of the pantry was subsumed into the kitchen.

But now (at least in 2007), the pantry is back.  With the DIY and maker movements, and people into growing and preserving food, they need a place to keep it all.  If you want to create a pantry reminiscent of any era, this book offers design hints at the end of each chapter to demonstrate what made pantries of that era unique. 

Do you have a pantry in your house?  I don't, and I desperately need one - for food and china storage.  To me the very word pantry conjures up the idea of order:  things displayed on shelves where they are easily located and accessed, beautiful things arrayed in the open where you can see them and remember you have them (and use them!) not hidden away and forgotten in a cabinet.  A pantry will definitely be something I look for in my next house!